Not That Kind of Girl

The next day at school Addi is called into her guidance counselor's office.

"Addison, please take a seat."

"Am I in trouble?"

She has never been called into the guidance office before and she is worried that she has done something wrong at this new school already.

"No not at all." Her counselor answers with a smile.

She is welcoming and has kind eyes. A plaque on the front of her wooden desk says 'Barbara Callahan'. Addi had never laid eyes on the woman before but she felt an instant comfort in her presence and she assumes that is probably why she chose this profession.

"There has been a mix up with your schedule. Your English class has been filled over capacity and we are looking for students to test out of your course and switch into the sophomore class. Based off of your test scores and the grades on your first few assignments we thought you would be more than capable to move up."

Addis is more than surprised and bites her lower lip.

"You really think I could do that?"

"Absolutely, we would need to do it today so you would go to your new class at first bell. Your teacher Ms. Campbell has already been told about you and is expecting you." She notices Addi's hesitation. "Don't be nervous. You'll be great. How have your first few weeks been going?" She changes the subject to ease her discomfort.

"They've been alright. I had a bit of trouble with a few girls in the beginning but I think we've figured it out. My classes aren't bad and I joined the soccer team." She opens up to this woman who simply smiles.

"Your coach has spoken quite highly of you. He said you really helped them out of a jam last week."

"I don't know about that."

"Don't sell yourself short. If you work hard and stay dedicated you could take this school by storm."

Addi feels her cheeks blush a deep red as she tried a joke to play off her awkwardness, "I'll keep that in mind."

She has never really had anyone express such strong beliefs in her before, other than her parents. The first bell rings and she slings her backpack over her shoulder.

"You'll be in room 402. Come back and talk anytime Addison. Have a good day."

"Thanks you too."

She walks into her new classroom and fights the smile that wants to come across her face when she sees Isaac sitting in one of the desks. He looks up when she walks in and he doesn't fight his own smile. He offers a wave but the teacher, Mrs. Campbell, interrupts before he can say hi.

"You must be Addison." She is much younger and a lot prettier than she had been expecting.

"Uh, yeah, that's me." She gives a smile on one side of her mouth, gripping the straps of her backpack tightly as she notices more and more kids coming in and staring at her.

"Welcome." She offers a warm smile that makes her eyes squint. "Here are your books. Why don't you take a seat," she looks around the room but Isaac raises his hand.

"Mrs. C, Addi can sit next to me."

"Okay, since you two seem to know each other, Addison you can take the desk next to Isaac."

She does as she's told and her heart skips a beat when she turns and he is staring intently at her with his sparkling golden eyes and smiling with his perfectly white teeth.

"Well looks like the Rizzoli-Isles household has two kid geniuses."

"I wouldn't go that far." She pushes her hair behind her ear as another boy in front of her turns around.

"You're Oliver's sister?" She nods. "That dude is the man. He helped me get an A in physics last year." She smiles.

She's glad the kids at this school appreciate his brain rather than mock him for it like they did at their old school.

"Alright everybody, please make our new classmate feel welcome." Mrs. Campbell smiles at Addi and this time she genuinely smiles back. "Okay, so we will pick up the conversation on Uncle Tom's Cabin from yesterday."

Addi's ears perk up when she hears the title of a book she's already read.

"So can anyone give any guesses why Stowe emphasized the use of Christianity amongst the slave characters?" Addi waits for a minute and when no one raises their hand, she slowly raises hers. "Yes, Addison."

"It was to humanize them. It's the same reason she gave them names and families. She was ultimately against slavery. Most people assume she included Christianity because her father was a preacher but it was more than that. She wanted to show the rich white people who were reading the book that slaves were human beings too. It's along the same lines as what a lawyer would do to persuade a jury their client is a human not just a story. It all comes down to relatability." Addi tenses up when the room stays silent but she relaxes when Mrs. Campbell's smile grows larger.

"That is exactly right. Great job Addison."

The rest of the school day goes by quickly and uneventfully, much to Addi's satisfaction. As she's changing in the locker room she notices some of the girls staring. She follows their eye line to the scar on her stomach. She puts her practice jersey on as quickly as possible and walks onto the field, trying her best not to feel embarrassed.

For a minute she had forgotten all about the ugly scar. Throughout practice she lets her hand travel down to the raised scar tissue and fumbles over it through the mesh fabric of her shirt. She catches the eye of the girls who had been staring. They weren't any of the girls she had hung out with over the weekend. In fact she didn't even know their names. Amelia notices the uncomfortable look on Addi's face and jogs over to her, pulling her from her thoughts.

"Are they bugging you?" She gestures to the girls who act busy when they notice Amelia looking their way.

Addi shrugs it off and kicks her soccer ball as far as she can down the field as part of their exercise.

"It's nothing I can't handle."

Amelia doesn't push it. She can tell by the serious look on her friend's face that she doesn't want to talk about.

"Okay, well, just so we're clear, you don't have to handle everything alone. I've got your back." She hits Addi's arm and runs off to the other side of the field.

After practice, by some stoke of bad luck, Addi and the two other girls are the only three left changing in the locker room. When Addi is putting her shirt on, she turns and they are already looking at her.

"You can stare all you want," Is the only thing she says, pulling her shirt down fully.

This makes both of them turn around. She hears one of them mumble a faint 'sorry'. She knows that they only backed down because she's friends with Amelia, but even so it makes her feel powerful and grateful that her new friend prevented unwarranted bullying, and she doesn't have any idea.

"Hey baby girl, did you have a good practice?" Jane asks, wiping some of the dirt off her daughter's face while she fastens her seatbelt.

"Yeah it was pretty good."

She lays her head back against the headrest and closes her eyes, letting go of the stress and excitement of her day. Jane glances at her in her peripherals and smirks.

"You hungry, kid?"

"Starving," Addi answers without opening her eyes.

"Mom had to work late so I'm thinking Chinese takeout. How does that sound?"

Addi gives a thumbs-up, not yet ready to talk to anybody. The rest of the car ride is silent and dinner goes by pretty quietly as well. After dinner Oliver and Addi set up at the kitchen island to do homework. Around 7 o'clock Maura walks through the front door, places her bags down, and joins her family in the kitchen.

"Hi guys, what's going on?"

"Homework time," Jane answers, giving a quick kiss to her wife.

Maura looks over her kids' shoulders at their work.

"How was everyone's day?" She asks, moving to get her plate of food from the microwave.

"It was good, I got an A on my physics test and I decided to run for class president." Ollie says with a smile on his face.

"That's awesome buddy." Jane says.

"I think that's a great idea."

"Yeah let us know if we can do anything to help you out."

Addi looks at her brother and can't help but feel guilty about the secret she's keeping for him. She knows he said he needed more time but she wants to know that he's happy. He looks happy, but how could anyone truly be happy when they are hiding such a big part of themselves.

"Ads?" She is taken from her train of thought by her Mama's voice in her ear. "How was your day?"

"It was kind of weird."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I got switched to a sophomore English class because apparently mine was overfilled and my grades were good enough to move me up."

"Wow Addison, that's wonderful," Maura feigns excitement while sharing a knowing glance with Jane.

"So you're in Isaac's class now?" Ollie asks.

"Yeah." She fights a blush and Ollie does his best not to smirk or say anything else because he knows how much she likes him.

"Are you okay with this switch?" Jane asks.

"I mean, I kind of have to be, don't I?" She shrugs, "I don't know. My teacher is really nice and I've already read like half the reading list and Isaac is in my class so it's a little less intimidating. It just kind of sucks because I really like Dr. Pierce, he really paid attention to me."

Jane feels her pulse speed up and heat move to her cheeks, "What do you mean he paid attention to you?"

"I don't know, he listened to me when I raised my hand in class and he talked to me when I would go to the classroom before everyone else got there."

"You spent time alone with him?" Jane asks, trying to keep her cool.

"Yeah, why?" Addi notices the tension in both of her mothers' faces. "What's going on?"

"Nothing sweetheart, why don't you guys go finish your homework upstairs?"

Neither of the kids argue this noting the intensity of both of their mothers. They go up to Ollie's room to finish their work.

"Do you think they're fighting?" Addi asks, a little scared.

"Why would you think that?"

"Did you see the looks on their faces? They looked mad about something, I just don't know what." Addi tries to focus on her work but her mind keeps going back to her parents downstairs.

After half an hour of neither of her parents coming upstairs she shuts her notebook and stands up.

"Where are you going?"

"To snoop, where do you think?"

She sneaks halfway down the stairs and sits down, trying to listen to the muffled voices coming from the kitchen.

"Jane you need to calm down about this situation. We got her out of the class. Do you honestly think that she wouldn't have told us if something had happened?" Maura stands across from her wife with a hand on her hip.

"Maur, if something had happened I think she would purposefully keep it from us. It's classic victim behavior and on top of that, it's classic Addison behavior. This is exactly why we had her switched out of that class. I don't want what happened to you to happen to her too."

"You know what, I'm a little sick of you saying that what "happened to me" makes me a victim. The only reason he was put in the position he was put in was because my parents had found out about us and they got upset. I was fourteen and more than capable of choosing who I wanted to have intercourse with."

"Would you feel that way if Addi came home and gave us the same argument?"

"This situation is wildly different. He was not my teacher. If he used his power as an educator to get a student into bed that is inexcusable. I was not a student and he was not my teacher." Maura can feel the anger bubbling inside of her stomach, "Of course I don't want Addison having sex with anyone at fourteen, and I wish more than anything that I had waited. It would kill me to know that she had been sexually active with an older man; but that's not my point here, because I know our daughter. My point is that what happened in the past needs to stay there, I am not a victim." Her expression stays stony, even though she wants nothing more than to cry when she thinks about this whole situation.

"I'm sorry baby, I didn't mean victim in a bad way. It's just the way we talk about cases like this at work."

"This isn't one of your cases, Jane. This is me and your daughter you're talking about. If Andrew had tried something I need to believe that she would have said something to us, because I can't send her out into the world every day knowing that she would hide her pain from us."

"I never should've said-"

"Your fears are valid. I know you just want to protect her but I truly do not believe that Andrew is someone that she needs protection from."

"I'll take your word for it. Either way, she isn't in his classroom anymore so my work is done."

"You're the reason I got switched to the other class?" Addi asks, anger on her face, as she walks quickly into the kitchen. "I really liked that class. Dr. Pierce is nice and he was the first person at that frigging school that was nice to me."

"Ads, it's a very complicated situation." Maura tries to reason with her daughter.

"I don't care. You could've at least talked to me about it first instead of sneaking around and making everyone pretend that I was smart enough to be in that new class." Addi is fuming, her face is red, her breathing is heavy and her fists are clenched so tight that her knuckles are white.

"Addison, you are so smart."

"Just not smart enough to do it on my own."

"Bumping you up a grade level was never part of the plan. You did that all on your own." Jane reaches for Addi's arm but she shrugs further away. "You need to trust that we didn't do anything to get you into that class."

"Why should I trust you? You lied to my face once already."

"I know you're upset but that doesn't allow you to speak to me and your Mama that way."

"I don't care about being polite. Why should I? You clearly don't." Addi yells and starts to walk away but Jane grabs her arm to stop her.

"Fine, I understand you're upset because we lied to you. So why don't we tell you the truth?"

"Everything?" Addi asks, looking at Maura.

"Everything; take a seat."

Maura and Jane do their best to explain the whole story to Addison and she seems to calm down a bit when she hears their motives for switching her class.

"Just so you know he never did, you know, try anything." She says, looking down, embarrassed.

"You have no idea how glad I am to hear that." Jane says with a genuine relief that her daughter is safe.

"Mom, I'm sorry that happened to you."

Maura wraps her arms around Addi and is happy when she doesn't shrug away.

"Thank you baby, but I had as much of a say in the situation as he did."

"Not according to the law; and besides he was old enough to know that what he was doing was illegal." Addi defends, sounding exactly like Jane.

"I suppose you're right but sometimes you don't realize the severity of a situation until you've been out of it for a while. He and I thought we were in love."

Addi tries to picture Maura in a relationship with a man, but she can't do it. Of course she knew that Maura had been with men before or else there would be no Oliver. It's just difficult for her to picture her parents with anyone other than each other. Their love just seems to fit. She smiles to herself knowing that they both do what they do because they love her and Oliver so much. She is grateful to be theirs.

"Well, what's in the past is in the past, right?"

"Exactly, we just want you to be safe and to make good, smart choices because you, young lady, are incredibly intelligent and we are so proud of you for getting into that new class."

"Thanks Mom."

Addi feels a little better knowing the full story and is relieved to know her moms aren't fighting. They rarely do, but when they get mad at each other it makes Addi extremely uncomfortable.

"Alright genius, why don't you go upstairs and finish your homework; make sure your brother is doing the same, alright?"

"Yeah like Oliver needs any persuading to do his homework."

Addi giggles to herself and hurries up the stairs.

"Do you think we did the right thing?"

"What? Telling her?" Maura nods. "I do. She deserves to know the truth. She's not a little girl anymore, as terrifying as that is to accept."

"They're both too smart. We could be in big trouble soon."

"Oh Maur, I think we already are."